Two-hundred titles out of the 750 hard cover books cited in Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s (1831 – 1891) The Secret Doctrine (1888) are reprinted or reset and made available (again) in 1977. The reason for the book list in this little publication should be obvious. It is not quite an easy way to read The Secret Doctrine! Few have a fit background in the basic fundamentals of languages like Greek, French, Hebrew, and Sanskrit plus some German and Russian. This altogether, plus a basic view of ancient religions, that only can come from reading those works connected with each. This grand view seems fundamental to discern the various terms, pantheons, deities and the rest.

Despite the effort necessary to unveil the teachings of The Secret Doctrine, it represents an unique journey for every reader. This little publication mentions the works, that are cited in the work. Although the list of references is not complete, may it be of support. And may it allow any reader of The Secret Doctrine to go deeper . . .

When Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 1891) and Henry Steel Olcott (1832 – 1907) visited Madras in 1882 and lectured in the Georgetown area, Grandhi Muthuswami Chetty who was a judge, listened to them. Though he was a rich man, he was spiritually dissatisfied, and though a Hindu desired to be converted to another religion. Muthuswami’s enquiring mind was kindled by the two foreign lecturers. He wrote down several questions about whether he should opt for another religion and left those papers in a cupboard in his house before he went to sleep in the night. Next morning, when he woke up and looked in the cupboard, to his amazement he found that all his questions had been answered. Muthuswami was convinced by the answers and never became a convert, for he joined the Theosophical Society.

From page 18:

” Good bye dearest Soobhiya & may the Masters bless and protect you. If you do come it will be the happiest day I will have had in these three years of exile! . . . I hope your dear wife and children are all well. Give them my blessing if they accept it.

‘This booklet has been compiled by the General Secretary of the Indian Section of the Theosophical Scoiety, Dr. C.V. Agarwal, in order to provide the members of the Section with basic material about Theosophy and the work of the Society. There is an immense depth of understanding and awareness implied in the word ‘Theosophy’. The work of the Theosophical Society encompasses all aspects of human progress, both at the outer level os social and economic well-being as well as the more fundamental inner level of moral and spiritual development.

Reading a book is insufficient for learning Theosophy and carrying out the lofty aims of the Theosophical Society. Deep reflection, self-purification and a life of selfless service must be stimulated by reading. I trust that the publication of this booklet by the Indian Section will help to stimulate members and strengthen its work’.

The Theosophical Society was formed at New York, November 17, 1875, and incorporated in Madras, India, April 3, 1905. The three declared Objects are:

1. To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour.

2. To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science.

3. To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man.

From the Chapter ‘Scientific Alchemy – The Physics of a New Age’ (p. 9):

” Plato’s dream of the philosopher-king is perhaps realizing its most practical actualization in the new physics: the union of the philosopher-scientist. The scientific method of the new physics is encompassing an imaginative wholeness, an indeterministic openness, that might best be conveyed by the language of poetry and philosophy, by the TAO. There is no dichotomy here between science and poetry; equation and verse together become a symbol for an expression of the reality of the universe. “

The concept of Deva-Man is both intriguing and immense; intriguing, because much of it still remains a mystery and what information is available is often carefully veiled; immense, because it appertains to the whole of man and to his relationship with nature and the Universe. […] What does ‘deva’ mean? The word is derived from the Sanskrit meaning ‘to shine’ – hence the ‘shining ones’, the ‘resplendent ones’. But the term is used very loosely and in Hindu Scriptures, for instance, may refer to all life which is invisible. It is suggested too, that devic life is the sum total of of substance itself, the basis of all manifestation, or, in other words, Spirit-Matter. It refers to a whole range of life that is evolving ‘pari passu’ with the human.

From page x:

” If we will but scan the records of history, legend and myth we can see the parts, which they played in the childhood of the race. We find records of these angelic beings, and their connection with man, in all the sacred scriptures of the world . . . “

” In the future, they will definitely take in charge the guidance of man’s evolution along special lines, and will constantly aid and instruct him. ” – From: Theos. Vol. 40, p. 186).

In this small book have been collected together articles authored by two outstanding students of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s (1831 – 1891) The Secret Doctrine. What makes this collection so unique is that the two authors were contemporaries of Blavatsky, and consequently, their writing reflects the atmosphere, captures the flavor of, the occult community of the late nineteenth century. All who admire and respect the magnitude of H.P.B.’s philosophy, particularly as expressed in The Secret Doctrine, will find much in this book to enchance their study of the nature of creation and of man.

” We are literally what our signature says: Two Students, nothing more pretentious. If we are also what has been called ‘communicative learners’, it is because we feel that what have been difficulties to us are probably difficulties to others, and that fellow-students can sometimes lend each other a helping hand over a rough piece of road. In reading ‘The Secret Doctrine’, the student is apt to be confused, even dazed, by the range of erudition, the wealth of illustrations, the abundance of digressions, the number of literary allusions. Devas and Daimons, Dhyani, Buddhas and Kumaras, Yugas and cycles, satyrs and fakirs, alchemists and adept, Manus and Monads, whirl around him in dazzling phantasmagoria, and he rises from hours of effort, his only distinct acquirement a headache.

We have found the most fruitful system of study is to fix on some one thing, to follow it, through all its windings with dogged persistency, steadily hunting it down through the two volumes, disregarding all alluring byways and seductive glades, until there lies before us that one thing in its completeness, with every touch given to it from beginning to end, clear definite, comprehensible. It may be remembered that there was one Proteus who could give the most interesting information, if only you could keep grip on him through all his transformations, until he reassumed his proper shape and became conversable. So, in following the Protean shapes in ‘The Secret Doctrine’, if you can only ‘hang on’ to the end, your reward is true. “